Eyvind Johnson's childhood near the Arctic Circle was harsh, with long days of labor and little formal schooling. His father had a mental breakdown when Johnson was an infant, and he was raised by foster parents. At 13 he left his foster home to make his way, working as a brickmaker, a sawmill worker, a movie theater usher, a cement maker, a train engine cleaner, a hay bailer, and a dishwasher in a hotel, among other jobs. Eventually he was able to earn a living as a newspaper reporter, and began writing his famous "working class" novels, including Bobinack, wherein modern capitalism is the antagonist, and Regn i Gryningen (Rain at Dawn), which is set in the drudge world of office employment. His four-volume novel Romanen om Olof (The Novel of Olof), about a young boy entering the work force, was filmed in 1966 as Här Har du Ditt Liv and released in America as Here's Your Life.

By his 30s Johnson was an established and successful writer, telling stories which can be broadly generalized as championing individuals against the machinery of society, employment, and capitalism. During World War II he was active in Sweden's anti-Nazi underground, and he later fictionalized these experiences in his three-volume Krilonromanen (The Novel of Krilon). He later wrote historical novels, most notably Molnen över Metapontion (The Clouds over Metapontion), a story set in four separate timelines from before Christ to the German concentration camps. He also translated Albert Camus, Anatole France, and Jean-Paul Sartre into Swedish. Johnson was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1974, sharing the honor with Harry Martinson.